This Is Love
by OnginalMaz
Summary: Love is not just romance. Love is family. Love is friends. Love is home. Love is the very theme of Harry Potter. It's the greatest magic there is. A short one-shot inspired by The Script's 'This Love' about various chararcters and the different types of love they feel.


_**This Is Love**_

**A/N: Rowling once said in an interview that "The main theme of Harry Potter is death". To me, the main theme has always been love. The different kinds of love throughout the book. So this little one-shot was born of that train of thought and it never would've actually happened if ThatObsessiveHPLass hadn't told me to get of my arse and write it. Then she beta'd it because that's what supermegafoxyawesomehot friends do. Read and review please.**

* * *

_It's in the eyes of the children  
As they leave for the very first time_

Hermione waited in the car as her father brought out her trunk and her mother finished a phone call. She gazed at her home taking in every little detail, knowing she wouldn't be here again for a long time.

She was going to live in a castle to learn magic.

The idea had sounded foreign to her only a few months ago, but after a trip to Diagon Alley and Professor McGonagall's visit; it was completely logical. Hermione thrived on logic. She knew in her mind that she would see her parents in just a few short months. Logically, she shouldn't be missing them before she's even left.

Then again, love isn't very logical.

* * *

_And it's in the heart of a soldier  
As he takes a bullet on the frontline_

Benjy looked around the pillar he was hiding behind. He was trying to assess where all the Order members were. He knew James and Sirius were taking on Rabastan Lestrange, a slytherin who had been two years above them, and Marlene and Remus were of fighting Avery who had been in their year and shared their lessons for 7 years. He had no idea about the others though. He thought maybe Lily was helping the injured as she was the best healer out of all of them. But where was Dorcas?

He knew she would probably be herding all the bystanders to safety. It's what she did really; take care of the weak. Ever since they were little, sharing a cot to now, when they were working side by side in the Order; Dorcas would rather kill herself a hundred times over than let an innocent suffer.

That's why he always worried about her. Especially now in the midst of the war. He saw how everything was affecting her. The war and all that came with it. It was all taking a toll on her. On the way she perceived the world. She was losing faith and he hated to see how a part of the person she was before this damned war was seeping out of her. With every murder, every disappearance, every hate crime made her more hardened. It made him hate the world for what it was doing to his bestfriend.

Finally he saw her. Fighting a group of _four _Death Eaters. Four Death Eaters against a twenty-year-old reporter in the Daily Prophet. He rushed to her, determined to help her to safety.

What Benjy didn't notice was a certain Anthony Dolohov behind him. Benjy didn't notice him till he felt himself being tied up with ropes. He started to fight till he saw that the Death Eaters who had been fighting Dorcas come to join his torture. He gave up then. He let them mutilate him knowing that they would eventually kill him. He gave up because now his bestfriend was safe. He would die a thousand times over knowing someone he loved was safe. He knew that it would hurt her when she found out that he died.

Then again, love isn't painless.

* * *

_It's in the face of a mother  
__As she takes the force of a blow_

Lily knew that she would not survive. She knew that a long time ago. She had known ever since the prophecy was made.

A man like Voldemort was a man of power. He knew how to break people to get information. To get them to give up those they loved. She knew that the only person who would never give into Voldemort was James. The idiot loved her and Harry too much to ever let them die. He would give his life for her and Harry.

Just as he did moments ago.

Sweet, stupid, funny James. The boy who annoyed her to no end, then grew up into the man she loved beyond reason. He died. Just a flash of green and all the life and love that was inside of him was gone. She wanted to mourn him. She wanted to just stop and let it sink in, but she couldn't. Harry was her priority now.

She had looked in Voldemort's face three times. It was contorted beyond any measure of humanity and she knew there was no bargaining. He would not accept her pleas for her baby's life. She turned to her son and tried to convey all the love she had in her heart for him. She knew that his life would be difficult if he lived. _When _he lived.

She loved him to no end. She knew he would always be hurt over the loss of his parents. That he would never have their love when he was old enough to appreciate it.

Then again, love isn't always fair.

* * *

_And it's in the hands of the father  
As he works his fingers to the bone_

Arthur Weasley filed away another report and looked at the muggle watch his wife had got him for his birthday. It was getting late. Very late. He knew Molly worried when he was late coming home.

It's not as if he could just not take the extra shifts. Theirs was a large family. Six beautiful boys and Molly was one month pregnant with what they decided to be their last son. There was no definite way to tell whether the baby would be boy or girl, but there hadn't been a girl born into the Weasley family for generations.

He wasn't complaining of course. His family was his life. He loved waking up to a house full of sound and a breakfast spread devoured in five minutes. His family was a bright spot in this war. He would be out all day dealing with people being killed left, right and centre then go home and find the greatest dispute to be that the twins had raised havoc.

Providing his precious family with the life they deserved was hard though. The boys grew up fast and wore out their things quickly. He wanted them to have the best life he could possibly give them. But that life wasn't really much.

So he got out some blank parchment to start his new report and settled himself for another long night trying to provide his family, knowing that he wouldn't get to rest for a few more hours.

Then again, love isn't effortless.

* * *

_It's in the soul of a city_  
_What it does after it crumbles and burns_

For the first time since it was built, Hogwarts was infiltrated. The intruders had knocked down it's defences.

The centuries old tapestries were burnt. The floors had fallen through. The corridors were blocked with rubble. The portraits were ripped. The statues were overturned.

Of all the damages done to the glorious castle, none was worse than the horror in the Great Hall.

Though there was not a splinter or crumble in the ancient stones, nor a scratch on the great oak doors; the Great Hall had the most damage.

It's students lay dead. Witches and wizards who had made Hogwarts their home for seven years of their lives. The students who had walked it's corridors and enjoyed their post-exam bliss in it's grounds. The students who had come to defend Hogwarts in it's most desperate hour had lain down their lives fighting for it. They had died fighting for the things they learnt there, for the friends they made there, for the lives they made through the seven years they spent there.

So the Great Hall stayed intact. It stayed sturdy and strong. It stayed a pillar to the students that were still living and still fighting. It wasn't much, but it was all that could be done.

Then again, love isn't flawless.

* * *

_And it's in the blood of a hero  
To know where he goes he may never return_

Harry walked into the forbidden forest each step taking him closer to his death. He thought about those next to him and how they had given their lives for this war. How every lifeless person in the Great Hall had wanted the survival of those they loved that they readily jumped into a battle.

Dumbledore was right. He had said that love was the strongest magic in the world, and it really was.

Harry walked on, knowing tonight he would walk into the arms of death. But he had been loved. And tonight he would die, but he would save the world that he loved. The world that had taken him a scrawny, eleven year old boy and left him a man with the memories of a life lived with love.

Because really that's what matter's the most in both worlds; love.

_This is why we do it  
This is worth the pain  
This is where we bow down  
This is where we fall down  
This is where the heart lies  
This is from above  
Love is this, this is love  
Love is why we do it  
Love is worth the pain  
Love is why we fall down  
And get back up again  
Love is where the heart lies  
Love is from above  
Love is this, this is love_


End file.
